Gobber lifted up the heavy door and gestured to the arena inside. He turned around and gestured for the people with him to follow him inside.
"Welcome to Dragon training!" Gobber introduces them.
The teens inside took a deep breath and walked into the arena, Astrid took in a huge breath of air before proudly walking in, an ax in her hand.
"No turning back," Astrid commented.
The rest of the teens all walked in and gazed at the large arena looking amazed at how it looks from the inside as they've only seen it from the outside.
"I hope I get some serious burns!" Tuffnut said as he walked up behind Astrid.
"I'm hoping for some mauling, like on my shoulder, or lower back," Ruffnut replied.
"Yeah, it's not fun unless you get at least a scar," Astrid said looking around the arena.
"Yeah, I know right?" Someone said. Everyone turned around to stare at the newest arrival. Hiccup. "Pain." He replied sarcastically. "Love it!"
"Oh, great. Who let him in?" Tuffnut asked, sounding more annoyed than usual.
"All right! Let's get started!" Gobber barked, coming up behind his apprentice. "The recruit who does best will get the honor of killing his first dragon in front of the entire village!"
"Hiccup and the witch already killed a Night Fury so does that disqualify him?" Snotlout said before turning away laughing.
"Can I transfer to the class with the cool Vikings?" Tuffnut asked before walking off.
Hiccup hung his head. He didn't like how they talked about his sister as he looked up and saw Elsa was there to show her support for her brother.
"Don't worry. You're small and weak. That will make you less of a target!" Gobber promised as he grabbed Hiccup and drubbed him over by the shoulder. "They'll see ye' as sick or insane and go after the more Viking-like teens instead!" He pats the boy on his shoulder and pushed him into position. "Behind these doors are just some of the many species you will learn to fight!" He gestured to one door, "The Deadly Nadder!"
"Speed: 8, Armor: 16," Fishlegs said.
"The Hideous Zippleback," Gobber said as he walked up to another door.
"11 stealth times 2." Fishlegs continued.
"The Monstrous Nightmare!" Gobber kept continuing as he gestured to the next door.
"Firepower 15!" Fishlegs is still going.
"The Terrible Terror!" Gobber moved on to another door.
"Attack; 8. Venom; 12." Fishlegs kept going.
"WOULD YOU STOP THAT?!" Gobber yelled at Fishlegs before grabbing onto a handle. "And the Gronckle."
"Jaw strength 8…" Fishlegs whispered to Hiccup.
Snotlout stepped forward when he noticed what Gobber was gonna do. "Whoa, wait! Aren't you gonna teach us something first?"
"I believe in learning on the job," Gobber said as he pulled down the leaver to the cage.
The cage door flew open and a brown Gronckle dragon burst from the cage. It immediately flew around, causing the teens to jump and try to escape it.
"Today is about survival. You get blasted...you're dead!" Gobber told them while the twins cried out as the Gronckle charged headfirst at them. "Quick. what's the first thing you're going to need?"
"A doctor?" Hiccup asked, unsure what to do.
"Plus-five speed?" Fishlegs asked.
"A shield!" Astrid said with confidence.
"Shield! Go!" Gobber said, gesturing to a wall with shields.
Everyone scrambled to grab a shield. Hiccup having trouble getting his on.
"A shield is your most important piece of equipment! If you must make a choice between a sword, or a shield, take the shield!" Gobber said as he went over to Hiccup and put the shield on his arm and pushed Hiccup onto the battlefield.
The twins both reached for the same shield, and a fight broke out over who got to keep it.
"Get your hands off my shield!" Tuffnut said to his sister.
"There's like a million shields!" Ruffnut replied.
"Take that one, it has a flower on it. Girls like flowers." Tuffnut said, gesturing his head to a shield next to the one they're holding.
Ruffnut ripped the shield out of her brother's grip and smashed it onto his head. "Oops." She then held it out to him. "Now this one has blood on it."
Their fight continued until a fireball knocked them off their feet and sent them flying while destroying the shield.
"Ruffnut, Tuffnut! You're out!" Gobber announced to them.
"What?" The dizzy twins called out.
"Those shields are good for another thing! Noise! Make lots of it, to throw off a dragon's aim!" Gobber told them as the teens quickly beat their weapons against their shields. Almost immediately, they started to receive a result as the Gronckle began to sway side to side in mid-air and shake its head.
"All dragons have a limited number of shots! How many does a Gronckle have?" Gobber asked the teens.
"Five?" Snotlout guessed.
"No, six!" Fishlegs answered, proud that his knowledge was useful for once.
"Correct, six! That's one for each of you!" Suddenly the Gronckle regained itself and fired at Fishlegs, knocking his shield out of his hand. "Fishlegs. Out."
The boy screamed in terror and ran as fast as his legs could carry him.
Hiccup screeched and ducked behind a weapon holder when Gobber noticed him. "Hiccup, get in there!"
Hiccup reluctantly did as his mentor said and was almost immediately shot by a fireball and hid again.
Elsa watched the training and looked away when the fireball almost killed Hiccup. She held onto the bars and accidentally froze them in worry. Letting the bars go, she sighed and knew that Hiccup would be fine with Gobber in there.
"Well, if it isn't the witch!" Someone said and Elsa knew exactly who it was.
Mildew.
He is tall and lanky, has white hair, and has wrinkly skin. Mildew is also always seen carrying a wooden staff. He wears a sleeveless brown scaly tunic, brown trousers, brown boots, and two white armbands with leather strings going across them.
On his tunic, above his shoulders, he has two shoulder pads on each shoulder. The shoulder pads are brownish or bronze-ish with a protruding pattern that somewhat resembles a smiley face. He also has an uneven pronounced underbite.
Elsa sighed as she dropped her head and groaned. "What do you want now, Mildew?"
"Just watching you." Mildew stated as he snarled.
Mildew has always been one of the many people in the village who wanted Elsa burned at the stake. He believes Elsa to be a witch and was even sent in by the dragons to sabotage them. Her and Hiccup's constant screwing up didn't exactly help her case she wasn't.
"Well, I'm just watching my brother," Elsa stated, gesturing to the training. "Keeping him safe."
"And I'm making sure you don't cause another eternal winter upon us." Mildew kept replying.
Elsa wished she could freeze him solidly to shut him up. Ever since that winter, which it already was, Mildew would never let her, or the people of the village forget it.
"It was an accident, Mildew." Elsa reminded him. "I didn't know what I was doing at the time. And the minute I did, I stopped it."
"Only after we demanded you did!" Mildew said, growing in anger.
Elsa groaned and, even though she wasn't a fan of violence, wished that one of the dragons would pick him up along with his sheep wife for food.
Yeah, there's a reason his house was built on the other side of the island.
"So, anyway I moved into my parent's basement. You should come by sometime to work out. You look like you work out!" Snotlout said while trying to flirt with Astrid a little as she wasn't taking her eyes off the Gronckle.
Astrid wasn't paying attention to him Astrid jumped when she saw the fireball heading for them. The fireball hit Snotlout's shield, and he was knocked off his feet and onto the ground.
"Snotlout! You're done!" Gobber called out.
Astrid leaped again and landed next to Hiccup. Him standing with his ax to the side and shield to the other, Astrid looking more professional and battle-ready than him. But that's always the case, isn't it?
"Well, I guess it's just you and me, huh?" Hiccup said to Astrid.
But when he said it, her eyes widened when she saw another shot being fired at them.
"Nope, just you!" Astrid yelled before running out of the way.
Just then, a fireball hit his shield and blasted it out of his hand. Hiccup snapped his head back and ran after his shield, the Gronckle hot on his heels.
"HICCUP!" Gobber yelled in fear.
After trying to get the shield, the Gronckle came after him. Hiccup forgot the shield and made a run for it.
The Gronckle neared and trapped him against a wall as Hiccup fell back and panted in fear. Hiccup threw his hands over his head and snapped his eyes shut.
Just as the dragon was about to kill him with a fireball, Gobber appeared just in time and yanked its mouth away from his apprentice, forcing it to spit out its fireball on the wall next to his head.
"And that's six. Go back to bed, ya' overgrown sausage!" Gobber shouted, tossing the dragon back in its cage and locking the beast back up. "You'll get another chance, don't you worry!" he said to the teens. "Remember:" Gobber said addressing his students. "A dragon will always," He turned to Hiccup and leaned in towards him, "always...go for the kill." He then lifted Hiccup onto his feet.
Hiccup then stared at the giant hole behind him in confusion. He remembered back to the Night and Light Fury that didn't go for the kill. If Gobber was led to be believed, he and Elsa should be dead.
Okay, he should be dead. She has a chance of escaping with her magic.
"So why didn't you?" Hiccup pondered as he sat in the clearing where he had met the two vicious Furies and picked up the pieces of the bowl.
"Maybe there's more to this than we realize. Or any of them realize." Elsa said as Hiccup for up and started to walk around. "Where are you going?"
"See what I can find." Hiccup said as he dropped down and found a small entrance.
"Hey, wait up," Elsa asked as she followed her brother down and found two rocks.
They went between them and found an opening that was wide enough for them to squeeze through. Curious as to what they discovered, they walked through the opening.
There was a small clearing with a big lake, with a big green area, but no Furies.
Hiccup sighed, "Well that was stupid…"
Elsa then felt something reflect off the sun and mess with her eye. When she looked down, she saw there was a white scale on the ground.
"Hiccup, look," Elsa said as she looked down and picked up one.
Hiccup then noticed a similar black scale on the ground. He curiously rubbed it between his fingers and wondered what that would mean.
Suddenly a black figure zoomed in front of her and screeched. They leaped backward and fell to the ground. Hiccup scrambled back to his feet before Elsa raised her hands to defend them. But then they saw one of the Night Furies from yesterday trying to scramble up a wall.
It failed in its task and fell down the smooth surface before gently gliding down. As it landed, the Light Fury came swooping down onto the ground next to it.
Their hearts thundered in their chests as they watched the dragon in front of them. Hiccup leaped onto another rock to get a closer look and watched as the dragon attempted to fly but fail miserably and crash into the ground a second time.
Hiccup reached into his pocket and pulled out his journal and quickly sketched out the Night Fury. Elsa sighed and leaped down to sit beside her brother, making sure he didn't do anything stupid or crazy.
You know, because this whole situation wasn't crazy enough as it is.
They heard a loud growl and looked up to see the irritating black Night Fury breath out a blue flame and blast the ground.
"Why don't you just, fly away?" Hiccup pondered aloud as he saw something strike his eye.
Its left tail fin was missing.
His eyes traveled back to his book, and he quickly smudged out the left tail fin. The Night Fury tried once more to fly but failed miserably.
Deciding to give up it wandered over to the lake and tried to catch a fish but failed miserably. The Light Fury then quickly flew up into the sky and used the momentum to dive into the lake. Once inside, they saw a blast and watched as a ton of the fish were sent flying, allowing the Night Fury to eat.
Elsa became intrigued by the relationship between the two Fury's as Hiccup sat down on his legs, letting go of his pen. The pen then rolled away from him and fell off the edge of the rock the kids had been sitting on.
"Hiccup!" Elsa complained to her brother.
The Furies looked up at the sudden sound and saw the young teens sitting there. Hiccup titled his head to the side, and the black Fury did the same. Elsa stared at the white scaled Fury.
They stared at each other for a long time, before Hiccup and Elsa noticed the Light Fury was getting defensive. The Fury blasted at them, causing Elsa to tackle Hiccup to dodge the blast. The blast missed them and hit the trees and started to burn.
Acting quickly, Elsa put out the flames with a mist of snow, stopping it from spreading. That action seems to have sparked interest in the Light Fury as she stopped firing and looked up with, what can only be described as, curiosity.
Seeing enough of them, and not wanting to temp the Light Fury to chase them, the two of them sneak off to make it back before the sunsets.
